What makes a conker champion?

Last weekend, for the 54th time, hundreds of competitors met to compete for the title of world conker champion in the village of Southwick in Northamptonshire. King Conker was there to oversee the proceedings. Jasmine Tetley beat the men’s champion Ady Hurrell in the Grand Final to retain the title she won in 2019.

There are several different versions of the game of conkers, but essentially it involves ‘smashing’ your opponent’s nut before they break yours. At the world championships, competitors have to draw a conker blind from a bag for each match, and then have three swings at their adversary’s conker, before receiving three. This repeats for up to five minutes when, if neither conker is broken, there is a penalty shoot-out — three lots of three swings each, with the most hits winning the contest. There are some other technical rules, such as the leather lace needing to be ‘eight inches from knuckle to nut’ on strike.